Reasons for optimism on Opening Day

In case you weren’t aware, the 2009 Major League Baseball season started a couple of days ago. I’ll be the first to say that I enjoy basketball and football a lot more than baseball. I think it’s due to the fact that baseball games unfold at a slower pace, the season seems super long, and baseball players tend to have less entertaining personalities than other professional athletes (I know, I know ... that’s debatable).
Nevertheless, I still really do love America’s pastime, and I am genuinely excited for this season.

In fact, I am more excited for this season than any other season in recent memory. I think that my excitement is rooted in the fact that my Cincinnati Reds might actually be good this season for the first time since the 1990s. They have a young, talented lineup and potentially one of the best pitching staffs in the National League. Our General Manager, Walt Jocketty, was the architect behind the perennially successful St. Louis Cardinals teams of the late 1990s and early 2000s. I realize that I am writing for Spectator and not the Cincinnati Enquirer, so I’ll spare you the task of reading a whole column about the Reds. Still, in this column, I am going to talk about the role that the MLB plays in small-market cities.

First of all, although I support a small-market team, I am not the type of person who is constantly crying about the disparity in payroll between teams like the New York Yankees and the Milwaukee Brewers. The Tampa Bay Rays, Florida Marlins, St. Louis Cardinals, etc., have proven that small-market teams can succeed. That being said, I do recognize that the playing field in the MLB (pun intended) is not 100 percent equal. But that’s typically the reality for any team sport. Growing up, I used to play sports in city-wide school leagues and on more competitive club teams on the side. When I participated in Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) basketball or select soccer leagues, there were always clubs that traditionally attracted the best players in the city. That was simply a microcosm of the reality of many professional sports leagues.

Using my city—Cincinnati—as a model, and based on my observations of other small-market baseball cities, fans in smaller markets really care about their sports clubs. Part of what makes people love baseball season so much is the fact that teams play nearly every night during the week. Football teams play once a week and NBA teams sometimes have weeks with only two or three games. You never really get that with the MLB. If the team you follow is always in playoff contention or fighting for a pennant, checking those daily box scores and standings means so much more than it does if your team is a perennial doormat. I think Yankees and Red Sox fans often take that for granted. Sure, the Yankees missed the playoffs last season, but at least they were playing meaningful games in August and September. My Reds were damn near out of
contention before my birthday (May 9).

Although I am particularly excited for this baseball season, the beginning of the year is always thrilling for me. As a fan of a small-market team, there is nothing like Opening Day. Anything is possible, although constant losing does breed pessimism and skepticism that can taint new beginnings. Even though past experience has trained me never to expect the Columbia men’s football team to finish with a winning record, I can’t help but be optimistic every September when the season starts.

By the way, the Reds lost today against the New York Mets to open the season. Some things never change.

Jelani Johnson is a Columbia College junior majoring in history. Sports@columbiaspectator.com">Sports@columbiaspectator.com